#1 New York - Jersey City - White Plains, NY-NJ (pop. 11,834,851) 

Arts Providers		2nd
	Independent artists	8th
	Arts and culture employees	5th
	Arts and culture organizations	36th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	2nd
Arts Dollars		9th
	Program revenue	23rd
	Contributed revenue	9th
	Total expenses	9th
	Total compensation	7th
Government Support		11th
	State arts dollars	69th
	State arts grants	116th
	Federal arts dollars	27th
	Federal arts grants	8th

The New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ, Metro Division spans the five boroughs of New York City as well as six counties in New Jersey and three Hudson Valley counties. The diversity of options dispersed throughout New York City’s five boroughs makes the Metro Division unique. Visitors and residents can experience cultural offerings in a vast range of artistic genres and from numerous cultural perspectives. Venues range from large, internationally known icons such as the Whitney Museum, Carnegie Hall, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, MoMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, American Museum of Natural History, and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to smaller but no less vital organizations including the Louis Armstrong House Museum, Flushing Town Hall, Weeksville Heritage Center, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum, Alice Austen House, and Bronx River Arts Center.

Not surprisingly, New York is ranked 2nd in the country on overall Arts Providers and 9th on Arts Dollars per capita. Nearly every measure of both Arts Providers and Arts Dollars is in the top 1% or better. It is worth pointing out that our Arts Dollars measures do not include commercial galleries or Broadway theaters. The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has significant impact through its commitment to supporting and strengthening the city’s vibrant cultural life. There are numerous clusters of arts and cultural activity such as the Chelsea and Lower East Side gallery districts, the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District, Museum Mile on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Snug Harbor on Staten Island, and Flushing Meadows/Corona Park in Queens, which collectively represent a range of performing and visual arts activity. New York’s historical and future role in the arts is captured by the World Cities Culture Forum: “The creativity driving this success is grounded in New York’s neighbourhoods, which have played an often revolutionary role in developing artforms. These include Yiddish theatre in the Lower East Side, hip hop and graffiti in the Bronx, pop art and punk rock in the East Village, the jazz and literature of the Harlem Renaissance, and the continued evolution of the Broadway theatre district. Culture is deeply ingrained in communities across all five boroughs of New York...The Mayor has committed to building 1,500 units of affordable living and working space for artists and 500 work spaces for artists over the next decade, to be available at below-market rates.”[10]

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#2 San Francisco - San Mateo - Redwood City, CA (pop. 1,648,1220)

Arts Providers		9th
	Independent artists	55th
	Arts and culture employees	3rd
	Arts and culture organizations	8th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	13th
Arts Dollars		3rd
	Program revenue	3rd
	Contributed revenue	4th
	Total expenses	4th
	Total compensation	3rd
Government Support		12th
	State arts dollars	315th
	State arts grants	235th
	Federal arts dollars	11th
	Federal arts grants	4th

 

The San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA, Metro Division’s arts and cultural landscape enjoys strong representation by organizations of every size and sector. Many arts and cultural organizations are clustered in neighborhoods: SOMA, Civic Center, Union Square, Potrero Hill/Dogpatch, and the Mission. San Francisco’s ballet, symphony, and opera are highly regarded, tour regularly around the world, and are among the highest-budget organizations in the community. Museums range from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which is the largest contemporary art museum in the country, to the Exploratorium to the Cable Car Museum to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. ART BIAS, based in Redwood City, supports individual artists through artist studios, professional development events and resources, exhibition opportunities, and a thriving community of artists interested in each other’s success. San Francisco is home to over 1,000 murals, and thousands of public artworks, which were funded by the city’s Art Enrichment Ordinance. The Ordinance requires that 2% of gross construction costs of civic building projects be allocated for permanent public art, ultimately helping enrich and beautify public spaces throughout the city, from the airport to hospitals. San Francisco also has a 1%-for-art program requiring large downtown-area construction projects to provide public art equal to at least 1% of construction cost. Many employees of tech companies direct their giving to the arts. San Francisco has an active and thriving “alternative/counter culture” arts community as well. The San Francisco Arts Commission is the city agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy. Grants for the Arts is a division of the City Administrator’s Office that funds arts organizations’ public programs and supports an arts promotion program within the city’s destination marketing organization. On a per capita basis, San Francisco is in the top 1% on Arts Providers and Arts Dollars overall, as well as every underlying measure of Arts Dollars. It is ranked 3rd on total compensation paid to arts and culture employees and 4th on federal arts grants.

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#3 Los Angeles - Long Beach - Glendale, CA (pop. 10,039,107)

Arts Providers		1st
	Independent artists	1st
	Arts and culture employees	4th
	Arts and culture organizations	174th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	1st
Arts Dollars		72nd
	Program revenue	74th
	Contributed revenue	72nd
	Total expenses	72nd
	Total compensation	59th
Government Support		231st
	State arts dollars	583rd
	State arts grants	647th
	Federal arts dollars	95th
	Federal arts grants	107th

 

Los Angeles boasts more artists and more arts, culture, and entertainment firms per capita than any other community in the U.S., ranking 1st on Arts Providers and independent artists. Strong financial support from the city has helped to build a diverse and vibrant arts community. Additionally, government-funded arts education programs have been developed with a particular emphasis on inclusion, diversity, equity, excellence, and accessibility. The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) operates 36 arts and cultural centers, theaters, galleries, and historic sites across Los Angeles. In addition, the agency provides millions annually in grant funding, and produces public and performing arts as well as arts education programming for children, teens, young people, adults, and seniors.

The City of Los Angeles mandates that 1% of the total cost of all construction, improvements, or renovation projects undertaken by the city be set aside for engaging public art projects. The LA County Department of Arts and Culture (formerly LA County Arts Commission) funds, among other initiatives, free concerts at venues throughout L.A. County as part of the annual Free Concerts in Public Sites Program. The vast wealth and subsequent generosity of early entrepreneurs resulted in Los Angeles becoming home to some of the world’s most important art museums and collections, such as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum, The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, and most recently, The Broad Museum. Independent art galleries with offerings for every art lover can be found all over the city. For the performing arts, Los Angeles is home to the world-renowned Music Center, one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States, with its four acclaimed venues and world-class resident companies: Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Los Angeles Opera. The Hollywood Bowl is the largest performing arts amphitheater in the world. These iconic institutions live in harmony with the Geffen Playhouse, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the L.A. Chamber Orchestra, and hundreds of smaller professional theater companies, dance companies, and music ensembles.

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#4 Washington - Arlington - Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (pop. 4,970,252)

Arts Providers		64th
	Independent artists	111th
	Arts and culture employees	42nd
	Arts and culture organizations	62nd
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	68th
Arts Dollars		2nd
	Program revenue	5th
	Contributed revenue	1st
	Total expenses	2nd
	Total compensation	2nd
Government Support		16th
	State arts dollars	36th
	State arts grants	170th
	Federal arts dollars	34th
	Federal arts grants	20th

 

The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Metropolitan Division covers the District of Columbia and surrounding counties, including Prince George’s County in Maryland, and Fairfax and Arlington counties and the city of Alexandria in Virginia, among others. Home to many world-class museums and a dynamic performing arts scene, the Washington, DC, region ranked 2nd overall in Arts Dollars. Although there are many small and mid-size arts and cultural organizations in every arts and culture sector, DC is especially rich in large organizations: the National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Phillips Collection, the many Smithsonian Institution Museums, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, The National Theatre, the Warner Theatre, and Arena Stage. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts houses the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra in addition to offering its own programming, drawing two million visitors yearly. Both Virginia’s Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts and Maryland’s Strathmore and Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts are large contributors to the region’s art scene, as is the DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival. The DC Metro Division is a thriving hub of arts activity that is home to several of the nation’s arts service organizations, including the American Alliance of Museums, Association for Performing Arts Professionals, Americans for the Arts, Chorus America, and National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Being the nation’s capital, it has an international population and a plethora of organizations that promote cultural and ethnic awareness. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) provides grant funding, professional opportunities, education enrichment, and other programs and services to individuals and organizations in all communities within the District of Columbia. It is joined by the Arlington Commission for the Arts, the Alexandria Commission on the Arts, the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council, and the Arts Council of Fairfax County in granting funds and supporting programs that benefit the arts in the greater DC metropolitan area. This community ranks 1st in per capita contributed revenue and 2nd in total compensation paid to those working in arts and culture. Although Washington, DC, is not a state, District of Columbia funding is reported as state funding through the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.

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#5 Nashville - Davidson - Murfreesboro - Franklin, TN (pop. 1,934,317)

Arts Providers		5th
	Independent artists	15th
	Arts and culture employees	6th
	Arts and culture organizations	258th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	3rd
Arts Dollars		33rd
	Program revenue	27th
	Contributed revenue	64th
	Total expenses	33rd
	Total compensation	39th
Government Support		34th
	State arts dollars	94th
	State arts grants	80th
	Federal arts dollars	50th
	Federal arts grants	64th

 

Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN, has long been known for its expansive music scene, but the emergence of world-class visual arts and fashion has put Nashville – Music City – on the map as an artistic and culturally rich destination. Nashville claims to have the largest concentration of songwriters in the world, with a strong presence of Americana-focused artisans and artists. These claims are evidenced and supported by the ranking on independent artists per capita, where Nashville is in the top 2% of communities. There is robust public support for the arts at the local level, and individual philanthropists have helped propel growth of some of the larger cultural institutions in the last decade. Metro Arts is the arts and cultural division of the city of Nashville. It provides over $2.7 million in grant funding annually to organizations and projects that strengthen the creative workforce, increase creative and cultural participation, and establish vibrant, creative neighborhoods. To attract and nurture emerging artists in all genres, an eight-week artist entrepreneur training program hosted by the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville that empowers working artists to see their vision through an entrepreneurial lens. In addition, Learning Lab is a public program that trains local artists to work with community partners on civic and social practice projects. The city is home to diverse artists and creators who contribute to neighborhood economies and create an exciting, authentic, creative city. Nashville is in the top 5% of all MSAs on overall Arts Dollars and the top 1% on Arts Providers, with particular strength in arts, culture, and entertainment firms per capita and the local employment that they provide, as evidenced by the ranking on these two sub-measures in the top 1%.

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#6 Boston, MA (pop. 2,031,884)

Arts Providers		44th
	Independent artists	186th
	Arts and culture employees	9th
	Arts and culture organizations	29th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	56th
Arts Dollars		6th
	Program revenue	11th
	Contributed revenue	8th
	Total expenses	7th
	Total compensation	5th
Government Support		14th
	State arts dollars	132nd
	State arts grants	46th
	Federal arts dollars	23rd
	Federal arts grants	18th

 

The Boston, MA, Metro Division’s arts community thrives on innovation and collaboration amongst organizations in the city’s arts sector and between arts organizations, neighboring communities, and other industries. From small organizations like The Record Co. and Company One to mid-sized, award-winning organizations like the Huntington Theatre Company, to icons such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has a wide variety of arts programming and venues. ArtsBoston serves 175 arts and cultural organizations with research and audience-building programs. Now and There brings art out into the community, exhibiting public art in common gathering places. Iconic cultural institutions can be found all over the city, such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston Children’s Museum, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Furthermore, the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture supports hundreds of organizations and serves around 1,500 artists annually through grants, technical assistance, and programs. Boston’s Percent for Art Program allocates 1% of the city’s annual capital borrowing budget to the commissioning of public art. Boston organizations rank in the top 1% for per capita contributed revenue, total expenses, and total compensation paid to those working in arts and culture. The city ranks in the top 5% for Arts Providers, with particular strength in the number of arts and culture employees, organizations, and entertainment firms per capita.

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#7 Newark, NJ-PA (population 2,167,829)

Arts Providers		10th
	Independent artists	21st
	Arts and culture employees	15th
	Arts and culture organizations	110th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	9th
Arts Dollars		26th
	Program revenue	40th
	Contributed revenue	30th
	Total expenses	28th
	Total compensation	21st
Government Support		27th
	State arts dollars	34th
	State arts grants	236th
	Federal arts dollars	51st
	Federal arts grants	28th

 

The Newark, NJ-PA, Metro Division spans six counties in New Jersey and Pike County, PA, and is part of the larger New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, MSA. Newark is a desirable place for artists and arts employees to live, as evidenced by the ranking on independent artists per capita in the top 3% and arts and culture employees in the top 2% of communities, with easy access to employment not only locally but also in nearby New York. Newark Arts is a nonprofit that “powers the arts” to transform lives of those who live in, work in, and visit Newark. Art Education Newark, formerly Newark Arts Education Roundtable, comprises more than 90 partners in a cross-sector collaborative to ensure that all schoolchildren receive high quality, sequential arts education. Cultural anchor institutions include the world-class New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

NJPAC serves more than 700,000 people per year. Other anchors include the Newark Museum of Art; New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; Newark Public Library; historic Newark Symphony Hall; world-renowned jazz station WBGO-FM; and Rutgers University-Newark’s Institute of Jazz Studies, the world’s largest and most comprehensive library and archive of jazz and jazz-related materials. The city is home to Audible.com, which has worked with more than 20,000 actors during the past six years, providing significant income to actors in the tri-state area. A major anchor is the 50,000-sq.-ft. Express Newark, a Rutgers University-Newark “collaboratory” in a renovated former department store. Express Newark engages the community, artists, faculty, and staff to collaborate, experiment, and innovate in printmaking, photography, painting, video, and more. Local and international artists partnered with key developers and the city of Newark to create Four Corners Public Arts, a collaboration of multiple public art initiatives, including 14 world-class murals – the largest being on an 8-story wall of the historic RKO Theater. Local and international artists also created the country’s second-longest mural, the 1.39-mile Gateways to Newark: Portraits project. Striking structures and artwork by architect Sir David Adjaye and myriad artists encircle PSEG’s new Fairmount Heights Electric Switching Station. Artists have blanketed all five wards of the city with culturally rich murals. The city’s art scene is fortified by numerous galleries and studios, including Akwaaba Gallery, Artfront Galleries, Barat Foundation, Gallery Aferro, Project for Empty Space, GlassRoots, Index Art Gallery, Newark Print Shop, Newark School of the Arts, NJIT’s College of Architecture and Design, Paul Robeson Galleries, RyArMo Photography Studio, and more. The GRAMMY Museum Experience – housed at Prudential Center, one of the nation’s top sports and entertainment arenas – is the only GRAMMY installation on the East Coast and boasts personal artifacts of Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, the Fugees, and more. Every first Saturday, Bethany Baptist Church hosts Jazz Vespers, a free concert featuring today’s hottest jazz artists. Trilogy, An Opera Company presents exciting contemporary performances reflective of the Black experience. Newark Boys Chorus has presented concerts at venues across five continents and throughout the United States. Festivals abound, including the Portugal Day Parade, the 50,000-person Lincoln Park Festival, the biennial Dodge Poetry Festival (the largest poetry event in North America), the James Moody Jazz Festival, the Newark International Film Festival, and the Newark Black Film Festival. The four-day Newark Arts Festival – voted New Jersey’s favorite visual arts festival by the People’s Choice Awards for two consecutive years – features some 500 artists, and draws 15,000 attendees and participants to 100 venues throughout the city. Mayor Ras J. Baraka launched the city of Newark’s first arts grant program, the $750,000 Creative Catalyst Fund, to ensure the diverse community of local artists and arts groups continues to thrive. It will provide grants to individual artists and small to mid-sized arts and cultural nonprofits, and will be administered by the city’s Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs in partnership with Newark Arts. The Fund is largely informed by Newark Creates, a community cultural plan, which found that sustaining Newark as an artistic hub requires funding, space, and coordination.

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#8 Minneapolis - St. Paul - Bloomington, MN-WI (pop. 3,640,043)

Arts Providers		25th
	Independent artists	63rd
	Arts and culture employees	11th
	Arts and culture organizations	65th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	49th
Arts Dollars		18th
	Program revenue	20th
	Contributed revenue	26th
	Total expenses	16th
	Total compensation	17th
Government Support		5th
	State arts dollars	2nd
	State arts grants	78th
	Federal arts dollars	5th
	Federal arts grants	16th

 

The Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, MSA has revered music, literary and publishing scenes, strong theaters, foundations, support for individual artists, a great orchestra, a wealth of performance and dance troupes, public art, and many opportunities for visual artists in the region’s renowned advertising sector. Expanded support for Native American, African American, Asian, and Latinx voices is a priority. It ranks 5th in the nation in Government Support. The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Weisman Art Museum, and The Museum of Russian Art are anchors in a visual art scene that includes over 400 working studios within just the NE quadrant of Minneapolis alone. The area’s dynamic theater scene includes companies such as Illusion, Jungle, Mixed Blood, Penumbra, Mu Performing Arts, Bedlam, Red Eye, Theater Latté Da, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, Lundstrum Performing Arts, and the Children’s Theatre Company. The Guthrie Theater, the area’s largest theater company, occupies a three-stage complex overlooking the Mississippi River. The Minnesota Orchestra performs in Minneapolis at the recently renovated Orchestra Hall, and Minnesota Opera performs in St. Paul’s Ordway Theater. The Science Museum of Minnesota and Minnesota Children’s Museum are also in St. Paul. The city is home to the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the largest non- juried performing arts festival in the U.S., and Art-A-Whirl, the largest open studio tour organized by the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association. In addition, Minneapolis has the largest literary and book center in the country, Open Book, and launched its inaugural literary festival, Wordplay, in May 2019. Minneapolis also is home to five specialized visual arts centers, including Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minnesota Textile Center, Northern Clay Center, and Film North. There are numerous community-based organizations that focus on cultural and ethnic practice and exchange, sharing knowledge of folk arts and celebratory events. ArtPlace America has helped to fund “Irrigate,” a three-year community development initiative created through the partnership between Springboard for the Arts, the city of Saint Paul, and Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Irrigate developed in response to the disruptive construction of a new rail line through the urban core, concerning many business owners in the area. Likewise, the city of Minneapolis’ Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy directs a Kresge-funded initiative offering multiple opportunities for artists and city departments to leverage and apply the skills and resources of the creative community toward city goals. Bloomington, a first-tier suburb south of Minneapolis, boasts its own impressive art scene; five resident arts organizations are housed in the city’s Civic Plaza, including Artistry, a small professional theater and multidisciplinary art center, and creative placemaking partner with the city of Bloomington; Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs, serving 400+ youth and performing across the state of Minnesota; Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, a 78-person orchestra; Medalist Band, a 70-musician, nationally reputable and award-winning concert band; and Continental Ballet Company, a professional dance company and school.

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#9 Frederick - Gaithersburg - Rockville, MD (pop. 1,310,235)

Arts Providers		57th
	Independent artists	103rd
	Arts and culture employees	58th
	Arts and culture organizations	75th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	48th
Arts Dollars		11th
	Program revenue	18th
	Contributed revenue	13th
	Total expenses	12th
	Total compensation	11th
Government Support		21st
	State arts dollars	25th
	State arts grants	162nd
	Federal arts dollars	49th
	Federal arts grants	34th

 

The Frederick-Gaithersburg-Rockville, MD, Metro Division, which encompasses Montgomery County and Frederick County, exists within the greater Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. Until recently, its name was the Silver Spring-Frederick- Rockville, MD, Metro Division. Partially inside the Capital Beltway, its arts and culture vibrancy benefit from the close proximity to Washington, DC, as evidenced by its 11th place ranking in total compensation to arts and culture employees, as well as its 12th place ranking in total expenses. In addition to close social and economic ties to DC’s arts and cultural offerings, Silver Spring is home to the American Film Institute’s AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, Round House Theatre, and Maryland Youth Ballet, as well as several entertainment, musical, and ethnic festivals including the most notable, AFI DOCS and the Silver Spring Jazz Festival. Montgomery County’s Silver Spring, Bethesda and Wheaton Arts & Entertainment Districts include venues for live music, theater, independent films, visual arts, dance, and more. These designated districts spur arts vibrancy through tax credits for new construction or renovation of buildings that create live-work space for artists and/or space for arts and entertainment enterprises, tax benefits for income derived from artistic work sold by qualifying residing artists, and a tax exemption for arts and entertainment enterprises and resident artists. Other notable area organizations include The Music Center at Strathmore, Olney Theatre Center, The Writer's Center, BlackRock Center for the Arts, InterAct Story Theatre, National Capital Trolley Museum, and Adventure Theatre-MTC. In Rockville, there is a civic ballet, civic chorus, and civic concert band. VisArts in Rockville provides arts education classes and camp programs, as well as gallery space for local artists. In the Frederick Arts and Entertainment District you will find the Delaplaine Arts Center, Griffin Art Center, Weinberg Center for the Arts, the annual Frederick Festival of the Arts, and a vibrant independent artist scene in downtown Frederick. This combined area has more than two dozen arts education organizations and two dozen dance companies. Frederick has a new public arts master plan and an innovative outdoor amphitheater and public arts project called Sky Stage, which has been recognized with an NEA Our Town grant. The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County and the Frederick Arts Council foster environments where the arts flourish through grantmaking, technical assistance, cultural promotion, professional development, and capacity-building support programs.

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#10 New Orleans - Metairie, LA (pop. 1,270,530)

Arts Providers		48th
	Independent artists	70th
	Arts and culture employees	25th
	Arts and culture organizations	166th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	67th
Arts Dollars		15th
	Program revenue	14th
	Contributed revenue	14th
	Total expenses	14th
	Total compensation	27th
Government Support		32nd
	State arts dollars	328th
	State arts grants	228th
	Federal arts dollars	31st
	Federal arts grants	21st

 

The New Orleans-Metairie, LA, arts community is rooted in its multicultural history, with French, Spanish, African, Cajun/Acadian, and Caribbean influences, among others. This diversity, rich artistic and cultural traditions, and a post-Katrina wave of energy have turned New Orleans into something truly unique. It is the birthplace of jazz and continues to earn its reputation for prominence in jazz and funk music with an abundance of musicians, an explosion of music clubs, the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint, and a plethora of jazz education available through entities such as the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. In 2019, the New Orleans Museum of Art opened a newly expanded Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, more than doubling its acreage and adding an amphitheater. The city is also home to the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, Contemporary Arts Center, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, World War II Museum, New Orleans Ballet Association, Junebug Productions, New Orleans Opera Association, Southern Rep, the McKenna Museum of African American Art, and The Louisiana Philharmonic. There are galleries scattered throughout the city, with a small concentration in the Warehouse Arts District and French Quarter. New Orleans attracts artists from all over the world, but it is a city that favors its local artists, many of whom are freelance. Local musicians, some of whom have multi-generational connections, mingle and transform sounds from cultures around the world, attracting huge audiences from the Crescent City. In the past decade, artist-run collectives have made a home along St. Claude Avenue. Arts Council New Orleans developed LUNA Fete in 2014, a free week-long festival of contemporary art, light, and technology in which local and international artists are commissioned to create large-scale public installations along Lafayette Street in the heart of downtown. The Council also hosts Arts Market New Orleans, an open-air artwork marketplace for New Orleans artists, and has over 400 art sites across the city. New Orleans is home to the National Performance Network, a national organization supporting artists in the creation and touring of contemporary performing and visual arts. It is interesting to note that New Orleans achieves its rank of #10 despite having greater socioeconomic challenges than all other Large MSAs. It ranks in the top 3% of communities on Arts Dollars as well as on all four of its sub-measures.

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#11 Philadelphia, PA (pop. 2,150,811) 

Arts Providers		81st
	Independent artists	156th
	Arts and culture employees	24th
	Arts and culture organizations	57th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	163rd
Arts Dollars		10th
	Program revenue	29th
	Contributed revenue	10th
	Total expenses	11th
	Total compensation	8th
Government Support		33rd
	State arts dollars	110th
	State arts grants	347th
	Federal arts dollars	38th
	Federal arts grants	27th

 

The convergence of history, multiculturalism, and creativity drives the arts and cultural sector of the Philadelphia, PA, Metro Division. Organizations of every size and discipline, representing myriad cultures and cultural traditions, serve the city’s diverse communities. From longstanding institutions like the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia to community-oriented organizations like Taller Puertorriqueño, Fleisher Art Memorial, and the Village of Arts and Humanities, Philadelphia’s arts and culture sector thrives on its diversity and is rooted in the city’s history. Institutions such as the Philadelphia Clef Club for Jazz and Performing Arts, Curtis Institute of Music, Settlement Music School, and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts continue to nurture students into internationally renowned artistic talent. The city has three major performing arts centers: the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the Kimmel Center, and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. Dance and theater companies abound, which include the world-renowned Pennsylvania Ballet and PHILADANCO! Sites such as the Franklin Institute Science Museum, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Museum of the American Revolution, and Independence Mall reveal that Philadelphia is not just bursting with culture, but also with history. Philadelphia is also home to more than 11,000 acres of public space, making the city ideal for festivals such as FringeArts and the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), and the creation of site-specific works to engage residents where they live. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance provides solid support in advocacy and audience engagement to ensure ongoing support for the arts. Philadelphia is the location for one of the offices of SMU DataArts, tracking data and sharing knowledge about arts and culture nationally. The city of Philadelphia promotes equity and access to cultural experiences in every Philadelphia neighborhood through two means: funding the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and its grantmaking to enhance the cultural life and vitality of the city and its residents, and supporting the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy as it works with artists and organizations to present free, high-quality arts programming to Philadelphians in their neighborhoods. Philadelphia ranks 10th in Arts Dollars and scores in the top 3% of cities on all Arts Dollar measures.

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#12 Cambridge - Newton - Framingham, MA (pop. 2,400,733) 

Arts Providers		65th
	Independent artists	180th
	Arts and culture employees	28th
	Arts and culture organizations	42nd
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	58th
Arts Dollars		25th
	Program revenue	33rd
	Contributed revenue	31st
	Total expenses	24th
	Total compensation	15th
Government Support		38th
	State arts dollars	244th
	State arts grants	73rd
	Federal arts dollars	43rd
	Federal arts grants	50th

 

The Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, MA, Metro Division is located just across the Charles River from Boston, and is home to Cambridge’s state-designated Central Square Cultural District. Its arts and cultural community is inseparable from the dynamism of its world-class universities, Harvard and MIT. Organizations like American Repertory Theatre, the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Semitic Museum, List Visual Arts Center, and MIT Museum are all university-based. The city of Cambridge’s Percent-for-Art ensures that 1% of the construction costs on municipal capital investment are designated for use in developing site-responsive public artwork. This has resulted in the creation of more than 200 artworks in locations across the city. In fact, the city of Cambridge public art program represents the largest collection of contemporary public art in the New England region. In addition to exhibitions and educational programming presented in Gallery 344, Cambridge Arts stages high-profile events such as the Cambridge River Festival, featuring music, dance, theater, and visual art. The Cambridge Art Association has been committed to exhibiting and promoting the work of regional New England artists for over 70 years. Cambridge is home to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. Merrimack Repertory Theatre and the Addison Gallery of American Art are well-respected organizations that reside in the Metro Division but outside of the density of Cambridge institutions. In addition, arts education organizations in Essex and Middlesex counties abound. This Metro Division is in the top 3% of communities in overall Arts Dollars and the top 4% in Government Support.

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#13 Cleveland - Elyria, OH (pop. 2,048,449) 

Arts Providers		78th
	Independent artists	278th
	Arts and culture employees	49th
	Arts and culture organizations	93rd
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	38th
Arts Dollars		16th
	Program revenue	24th
	Contributed revenue	20th
	Total expenses	17th
	Total compensation	14th
Government Support		73rd
	State arts dollars	39th
	State arts grants	177th
	Federal arts dollars	142nd
	Federal arts grants	105th

 

For over a century, the Cleveland-Elyria, OH, MSA has been home to a historic, nationally recognized arts and cultural community. Many of these longstanding arts and cultural treasures established a legacy during the city’s economic and industrial prime. Several of these anchor institutions include the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Playhouse Square, and Karamu House, which is the country’s oldest African American theater. These anchor institutions exist in the midst of high- quality, arts-based educational institutions, including Oberlin College, Baldwin Wallace University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Art. There are multiple thriving arts districts in the Cleveland area. Residents and visitors can access University Circle and Waterloo arts districts on the east side, Playhouse Square theater district centrally, and Gordon Square arts district on the west side. Organizations and collectives throughout these districts include GroundWorks Dance Theater, Zygote Press, the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory, Twelve Literary Arts, Praxis Fiber Workshop, Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, ArtHouse, Cleveland Public Theater, and SPACES Gallery. Music has been and still is a huge part of Cleveland’s cultural fabric. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is seated downtown and many music artists, live music clubs, and music educational institutions call the city home. Local support is strong, fueled by a cigarette excise tax that created Cuyahoga Arts & Culture in 2006 and by the city of Cleveland’s Percent for Art program that increases public artworks, particularly in public transportation areas. The arts community is also starting to closely examine how racial inequities impact the sector. Funders and arts nonprofits are participating in ongoing racial equity training and beginning to implement organizational changes to ensure that their funding and artistic work benefit all local residents. There is a wide variety of arts festivals and events in Cleveland, including art and technology festival IngenuityFest, Parade the Circle, Waterloo Arts Festival, and the most recent addition of FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. There have been growing investments in the writing community, as well as an effort to unite the city’s writers, including Cleveland Book Week, the development of Literary Cleveland, and the Brews + Prose monthly readings. Cleveland is also home to the nationally acclaimed Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Given this support base, it is no surprise that Cleveland ranks in the top 2% of all communities on overall Arts Dollars, with particular strength in total compensation per capita.

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#14 Oakland - Berkeley - Livermore, CA (pop. 2,824,855) 

Arts Providers		34th
	Independent artists	76th
	Arts and culture employees	32nd
	Arts and culture organizations	54th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	36th
Arts Dollars		35th
	Program revenue	34th
	Contributed revenue	50th
	Total expenses	41st
	Total compensation	28th
Government Support		64th
	State arts dollars	386th
	State arts grants	404th
	Federal arts dollars	52nd
	Federal arts grants	25th

 

The Oakland-Berkeley-Livermore, CA, MSA is a dynamic hub of arts and culture. At the geographic center of the Bay, Oakland boasts over 30 art galleries and performing art venues; invests in public art, including public art installations that display cultural and environmental themes; and has a “Public Art for Private Development” ordinance that contributes to this city’s rich visual culture. Oakland, Hayward and Berkeley have designated Art Districts located downtown, providing clusters of theater, music, dance, and visual arts, including the Hayward Arts Council and Sun Gallery in Hayward, and Tony and Grammy award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theater, Freight & Salvage, and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) in Berkeley. In Oakland, the Black Arts Movement District is anchored by the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts – home to Oakland’s African Diaspora dance community and the African American Museum & Library. Other notable arts and cultural organizations abound in this MSA, including the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland, Kala Art Institute, Aurora Theatre Company, Shotgun Players, Cal Performances, and the Sawtooth Building in Berkeley. The area is also home to many arts-related festivals and events such as the Bay Area Book Festival in downtown Berkeley. In Oakland, Art & Soul, Black Joy Parade, Dia de los Muertos Festival, Chinatown Lunar New Year Bazaar, Oakland Pride, Life Is Living, and the Oakland Art Murmur galleries events are a few examples of how cultural diversity is celebrated in the city. Berkeley in particular is known nationwide for its excellence in music, while Oakland evolved its legacy as a bustling jazz and blues music scene into a creative playground for world-renowned spoken word and hip-hop artists. The California Jazz Conservatory, which offers many public performances, is the only accredited jazz school in the nation. Berkeley is also known for its diversity in cultural organizations, such as Gamelan Sekar Jaya (GSJ), an internationally acclaimed performing arts troupe specializing in Balinese gamelan. This MSA is in the top 3% of markets that attract federal arts grants.

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#15 Chicago - Naperville - Evanston, IL (pop. 7,122,715) 

Arts Providers		31st
	Independent artists	74th
	Arts and culture employees	13th
	Arts and culture organizations	150th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	40th
Arts Dollars		42nd
	Program revenue	44th
	Contributed revenue	54th
	Total expenses	44th
	Total compensation	31st
Government Support		78th
	State arts dollars	283rd
	State arts grants	241st
	Federal arts dollars	75th
	Federal arts grants	62nd

 

The Chicago-Naperville-Evanston, IL, Metro Division is home to world-class arts and cultural organizations and a diverse array of creative forms originating from across Chicago’s neighborhoods, reinforcing Chicago’s reputation as an arts powerhouse and global cultural destination. Live-music genres that are part of the city’s cultural heritage include Chicago blues, soul, jazz, gospel, and house. The site of an influential hip-hop scene, Chicago also launched new dance styles such as juke and footwork. Chicago is also credited as the birthplace of storefront and improv theater, slam poetry, and more than 250 theater companies including an unprecedented five Tony Award-winning regional theater companies: Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Lookingglass Theatre Company. Cultural institutions include the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and The Joffrey Ballet, the National Museum of Mexican Art, and Black Ensemble Theater, among hundreds of others. Classical offerings include the globally renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, and Chicago Sinfonietta. The Chicago Cultural Alliance works to strengthen ethnic museums and cultural centers located across Chicago neighborhoods. Numerous universities contribute to Chicago’s arts scene as well, providing top education and training in the arts and media that make Chicago a draw for young talent. Through the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), the city provides vital support to the arts, from individual and organizational grants to capacity-building programs, residencies, and performance opportunities. DCASE is also known for its role in producing a number of free, citywide music and cultural festivals that draw international audiences. There is strong local public and foundation arts support, and several non-arts agencies have a long tradition of advancing the arts across Chicago’s neighborhoods, including cultural centers and arts residency programs in the city’s 80 neighborhood branch libraries and 580 parks. Important outdoor public art abounds, providing free access to works from both established masters and contemporary street artists. Chicago’s Millennium Park, featuring interactive public artworks Cloud Gate, Crown Fountain, and Jay Pritzker Pavilion, is the top tourist attraction in the state and regularly sees 20 million annual visitors. Chicago also is the headquarters for numerous government advocacy and support agencies, including Arts Alliance Illinois and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

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#16 Seattle - Bellevue - Kent, WA (pop. 3,074,865) 

Arts Providers		20th
	Independent artists	59th
	Arts and culture employees	21st
	Arts and culture organizations	95th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	23rd
Arts Dollars		52nd
	Program revenue	39th
	Contributed revenue	91st
	Total expenses	47th
	Total compensation	55th
Government Support		137th
	State arts dollars	737th
	State arts grants	524th
	Federal arts dollars	71st
	Federal arts grants	38th

 

 Art is viewed as essential in the Seattle, WA, MSA, and it is integrated into daily life. Whether as artist-designed manhole covers and public art for new construction, or the Seattle Department of Transportation’s official “Art Plan,” bringing beauty and art to the streets of Seattle is high priority for city officials. It has large, established institutions that tend to be clustered in two neighborhoods: Downtown and the Seattle Center. Seattle has a large ecosystem of smaller arts organizations that exist in every genre, in just about every neighborhood, and in four official arts and cultural districts: Capitol Hill, Central Area, Uptown, and Columbia/Hillman City. Seattle boasts more than 140 producing theater companies. It has been recognized nationally and internationally for leadership and innovation in theater, music, glass art, and literary arts. It is one of only a handful of U.S. cities to have a top-tier symphony, ballet, and opera, and it has been designated a City of Literature in UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. The city’s Office of Arts & Culture is a cabinet-level department that is supported by a dedicated revenue stream and, at the county level, 4Culture provides critical funding for the arts, public art, heritage, and historic preservation. Seattle citizens use art and culture to preserve the environment as well, through festivals and art installations dedicated to appreciating and saving Seattle’s natural beauty. Innovative organizations like Shunpike provide emerging, independent artists and small arts organizations with support in the form of critical services, resources, and opportunities to create success. The Office of Arts & Culture recently intensified its commitment to racial equity and social justice. It offered intensive basic training to artists ready to translate their studio or gallery experience into the public realm through “Public Art Boot Camp”; Artists Up, a collaborative effort between the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4Culture, and ArtsWA, serves historically marginalized or underrepresented artists in Washington state; and its CityArtist program continues to support the work of Seattle-based individual artists and curators. Seattle is ranked in the top 2% of communities on Arts Providers, and all of its sub-measures in this area are within the top 10% of all cities. Despite substantial city support and programs that drive the arts and Seattle being among the top 8% of markets for federal arts dollars, per capita state funding in Washington is among the lowest in the nation.

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#17 Portland - Vancouver - Hillsboro, OR-WA (pop. 2,492,412) 

Arts Providers		22nd
	Independent artists	44th
	Arts and culture employees	29th
	Arts and culture organizations	67th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	30th
Arts Dollars		67th
	Program revenue	99th
	Contributed revenue	60th
	Total expenses	79th
	Total compensation	46th
Government Support		72nd
	State arts dollars	318th
	State arts grants	226th
	Federal arts dollars	60th
	Federal arts grants	51st

 

The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA, MSA continues to attract makers, creatives, artists, and designers with a stunning natural environment, excellent transportation system, relative affordability, liberal reputation, and passion for all things creative. Since 2012, Portland residents have invested millions in support of arts education in schools and expanded arts access through a voter-approved $35 annual income tax, the Arts Education & Access Fund. As a result, every K-5 school in Portland has at least one art, music, or dance teacher, and millions of dollars are invested annually in a wide variety of arts and culture organizations. New regional investment in the arts includes the 2019 groundbreaking for a new state-of-the-art facility, the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, by the Beaverton Arts Foundation. The Regional Arts & Culture Council, an independent nonprofit local arts agency, has helped to steward the city of Portland’s and region’s investments in arts and culture since 1995, in partnership with many individual artists and organizations, including Tualatin Valley Creates and the Clackamas County Arts Alliance, among countless others. This investment in the arts is further evidenced by high scores for federal arts grants, which rank in the top 6%.

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#18 Austin - Round Rock, TX (pop. 2,227,083)

Arts Providers		21st
	Independent artists	51st
	Arts and culture employees	34th
	Arts and culture organizations	105th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	20th
Arts Dollars		87th
	Program revenue	80th
	Contributed revenue	108th
	Total expenses	93rd
	Total compensation	82nd
Government Support		22nd
	State arts dollars	221st
	State arts grants	42nd
	Federal arts dollars	36th
	Federal arts grants	26th

 

 While Austin-Round Rock, TX, may be well known for its music and filmmaking scenes, it also has a robust, multifaceted arts scene marked by a collaborative ethos that includes a cutting- edge theater community, a burgeoning visual arts scene, and emerging art/tech intersections. This is also evidenced by the fact that it ranks within the top 3% of communities on Arts Providers, with particular strengths in arts, culture, and entertainment firms as well as arts and culture employees. Billed as the “Live Music Capital of the World,” Austin has more than 250 live venues that fill the city with music every night of the week and is a magnet for young musicians and audiences. Austin is also a festival town with long-running annual events such as Austin City Limits, South by Southwest, Austin Film Festival, Fusebox Festival, Texas Book Festival, and cultural celebrations like Dia de los Muertos. Austin’s experimental theater may be due in part to the widely regarded Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas (UT), with its focus on playwriting and screenwriting, as well as innovative productions by the Rude Mechs collective, The Vortex theater, and by Proyecto Teatro, which presents all programming entirely in Spanish. Museums like UT’s Blanton Museum of Art, one of the largest university art museums in the U.S., and The Contemporary Austin, Mexic-Arte Museum (the Official Mexican and Mexican American Museum in the Southwest), and the East Austin Studio Tour (E.A.S.T.), among others, have nurtured the rising visual arts scene. While Austin is home to the Long Center for the Performing Arts with its resident companies Austin Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Austin, and Austin Lyric Opera, the city is also home to cultural facilities that serve as gathering places for the African American, Latinx, and Asian communities. Despite Austin being the 11th largest city in the nation, the majority of arts organizations are small; however, the dynamism of the city’s arts organizations is reflected in the attraction of high numbers of state and federal government grants. Austin ranks in the top 3% of communities on Government Support, and within the top 5% on three out of four sub-measures. Austin’s high ranking in these measures is not surprising; Austin is home to several statewide arts organizations, making it a hub for arts leadership in the state. These organizations include the Texas Cultural Trust, Texans for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Center for Educator Development in the Fine Arts, and Texas Music Educators Association. The Cultural Arts Division of the city’s Economic Development Department provides leadership and management for Austin’s cultural arts programs and for the economic development of arts and cultural industries. With its strength in technology, Austin has achieved the distinction of being the first (and only) city in the U.S. to receive a City of Media Arts designation within UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. 

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#19 Nassau County - Suffolk County, NY (pop. 2,833,525) 

Arts Providers		16th
	Independent artists	25th
	Arts and culture employees	18th
	Arts and culture organizations	237th
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	14th
Arts Dollars		94th
	Program revenue	144th
	Contributed revenue	109th
	Total expenses	98th
	Total compensation	79th
Government Support		110th
	State arts dollars	289th
	State arts grants	396th
	Federal arts dollars	114th
	Federal arts grants	75th

 

The Nassau County-Suffolk County, NY, MSA is comprised of the two counties of Long Island that fall outside of New York City’s five boroughs. From the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site to the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, Long Island’s history is rich and filled with the tales of many famous Americans who have called the island home. It is rich in arts venues and vibrant in cultural life. Long Island’s more than 100 museums include the Nassau County Museum of Art, Heckscher Museum, Parrish Art Museum, Islip Art Museum, Cradle of Aviation Museum, and Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages. The Heckscher Museum is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Many townships have their own local art museum in addition to a variety of galleries that depict landscapes that trace the changes in the island’s history. The Gold Coast region is known for its many mansions and arboretums immortalized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his classic novel The Great Gatsby. Today Long Island continues to attract artists as evidenced by its rank in the top 3% of communities on independent artists as well as arts and culture employees per capita. It is home to esteemed artist residency programs at Watermill Center and Fire Island, and there is a long roster of Montauk Artists Association members. Gateway Playhouse, Bay Street Theater, Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Staller Center for the Performing Arts, and many community theaters house ballet, classical music, spoken word art, and theatrical productions. Guild Hall in East Hampton is one of the United States’ first multidisciplinary cultural institutions. In 2017, a consortium of 10 Long Island arts councils came together to increase the collaboration, synergy, and exchange of ideas among the area’s communities.

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#20 Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN (pop. 2,221,208)

Arts Providers		136th
	Independent artists	254th
	Arts and culture employees	81st
	Arts and culture organizations	231st
	Arts, culture & entertainment firms	120th
Arts Dollars		14th
	Program revenue	12th
	Contributed revenue	17th
	Total expenses	15th
	Total compensation	16th
Government Support		91st
	State arts dollars	60th
	State arts grants	281st
	Federal arts dollars	130th
	Federal arts grants	153rd

 

NEW COMMUNITY - Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN, boasts a diverse economy, ranging from sectors in manufacturing to financials to marketing, providing an incubator for growth. The city’s German heritage and prominence in the mid and late 19th century created deep arts roots and a vision as an arts city by early founders and philanthropists. The city is adorned with mural art painted over the last 25 years by arts apprentices in a youth employment program, and is home to architecturally significant buildings ranging from preserved Italianate brownstones to Zaha Hadid’s first U.S. commission, the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC). Cincinnati refers to itself as “the city that sings.” The May Festival is the longest-running choral festival in the Western Hemisphere, dating back to 1873. A newly formed Young Professionals Choral Collective is the fastest-growing group of its kind in the nation, with more than 1,200 members. Cincinnati is home to a top-10 U.S. orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra; the second-oldest opera company in the country, Cincinnati Opera; the Cincinnati Ballet; Tony Award-winning Playhouse in the Park; Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati; and one of the few Shakespearean theaters to complete the canon, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Cincinnati is also home to a professional school of music, the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), and a leading College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP), both at the University of Cincinnati. The Art Academy of Cincinnati got its start at the Cincinnati Art Museum, which was founded in 1881 and became the first art museum west of the Alleghenies. The Taft Museum is a small art museum housed in a National Historic Landmark, with European and American masterworks. Cincinnati is recognized as a top city in North America for film production because of its locally based on- and off-camera talent. Locals often note that Cincinnati has more festivals than it has weekends. In 2017 and again in 2019, Cincinnati created a new four-day festival called BLINK®, one of the largest light, art, and projection mapping events in the nation. In 2019, nearly 1.5 million people visited Cincinnati to experience BLINK, which spanned 30 city blocks and two states by crossing over the Ohio River into Kentucky. Cincinnati is home to the nation’s first and largest community arts campaign, the ArtsWave Community Campaign, which has raised and invested over $340 million in the region’s arts since 1949. ArtsWave funds 125 organizations every year through an impact-based framework called the Blueprint for Collective Action in the Arts Sector, which drives a more vibrant regional economy and more connected community. Given this commitment to the arts, it is no surprise that Cincinnati ranks in the top 2% on all Arts Dollars measures. Over the last two decades, ArtsWave has committed to broaden support for small, mid-sized, emerging, and multicultural arts organizations, which has helped create a greater balance in the arts landscape. There has been significant capital investment in the arts in the last several years as well: a $160M restoration of historic Music Hall; expansion of Ensemble Theatre; construction of a new home for Cincinnati Shakes; creation of the outdoor “Art Climb” staircase at the Art Museum; and more. Underway is a new Center for Dance and home of Cincinnati Ballet; new 4,500-seat music venue at The Banks built by the Cincinnati Symphony; and new main-stage theater at Playhouse in the Park.

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